For many reasons, such as concerns for global warming caused by human activity, the increasing cost and potential eventual lack of availability of oil and natural gas, even the shortage of water for hydroelectric power, there is great interest in cost-effective methods and materials for providing energy. Much focus is brought to bear on renewable energy sources, especially upon electricity generated using photovoltaic panels. At the present time the widespread use and installation of electric capacity from solar equipment is hampered by many factors. Present solutions suffer from poor efficiency, short product lifetimes, a poor business model, consumer resistance to a substantial up-front cost that may not be recovered if the consumer does not continue living in a facility equipped with solar equipment long enough to recoup the capital costs.
FIG. 1A through FIG. 1C illustrate various configurations of solar systems comprising solar panels connected to inverters. FIG. 2 is an example of grid-connected photovoltaic systems, wherein the power provided by the solar system is driven into the grid system of a utility. A representative configuration of a system according to the prior art 202 shows a plurality of panels with a single inverter for converting the direct current provided by the panels in to alternating current electrical power. A representation of an example embodiment of the present invention is shown as system 204. Note that each panel of 204 includes a converter.
Electrical power sources are deployed in a variety of configurations, such as differing number of phases, providing a variety of voltages and type, such as alternating current of one or more phases ranging from 100 volts to many thousands of volts or direct current of any voltage. The prior art solutions for combining various power sources to provide these configurations have many difficulties, notably difficulty in continuing to provide adequate power after a failure of a subsystem.